PC:Marcus Leather
Summary Fluff Description: Marcus might not be so ugly if it weren't for his mangled nose and the countless scars that cover nearly every inch of his body. Black eyes glint with experience. Head shaved clean, skin dark as night, teeth white and bright like the stars. His hands are massive and hard as steel. His body tall, muscled tight like rope. Personality: Marcus is a born survivor, you have to be to live on the streets so long where he grew up and not wind up in a pool of blood in some godforsaken alley or enslaved, fighting for your life in some pit or arena. Marcus keeps things simple, and drives a hard bargain. No nonsense. He's just hard and tough. Tougher than leather. Background: Marcus' father, Hark, a miserable drunk with little love for wife or any of his 9 children, owned a run down winehouse in the the Warrens of Tear, a brutally violent and unforgiving city in Old Allaria given over to slavery. At least until the day, too drunk to even put his pants on the right way, he refused to pay protection money to the elves of the local gang and he was stabbed to death in front of Marcus. The truth be told, neither he nor his eight younger sisters flinched. In fact it was quite a relief. Though she denied it, Marcus is pretty sure that his mother, Sandy, actually giggled. Things were actually better for a while, til the gang of elves started muscling in on Sandy. It didn't matter what she paid, they always asked for more. And then the day came when she had nothing more to give. Knives were drawn. One of the thugs took Tayne, Marcus' youngest sister by the scruff and pressed a blade hard enough against the skin of her neck to draw blood. Foolishly Marcus went to her aid. The chair that struck him in the face destroyed his nose. He didn't even feel the kicks that shattered his ribs. When he came to, the winehouse was in pieces. Several bodies lay crumpled in heaps in pools of blood beneath the wooden rubble left by the furniture and bloodied footprints marked their way to the door, which swung in the warm breeze, torn partly off its hinges. A massive giant of a man cradled his mother in his arms and caressed her long dark hair lovingly. Marcus recognised him as the half-giant that would come in and sit and drink in silence. Sometimes he would just sit. And even then he always paid and well. After they buried Tayne and nailed the heads of the elven thugs above the door, life resumed. Jak the Half Giant stayed. The elves stopped bothering them. The face of the wine house changed over the next few years. Jak trained Marcus in the art of staying alive. He trained him real hard. Marcus became hard. Sandy trained her daughters in the art of seduction. What was once little more than a rat infested dive for the worst kind of reprobate became a popular prostibulary. A safe place with a decent reputation for a hole in the Warrens, the "winehouse" became know as the 4 Headed Giant. Marcus was 20 when the elves took revenge. His sisters' screams woke him before the flames reached him. He threw himself from the second story window. Barely surviving the fall, his body shattered once more, he watched what had been for a moment a happy life go up in flames. He watched Jak's burning frame burst clear of the front door, carrying his mother in his arms only to watch them skewered by the blades of the elves waiting outside. Marcus dragged himself into a sewer hole and waited for death to come. Marcus survived fevered days and nights. When the fever finally broke he found himself on a bed of rags, his leg and arm wrapped in a splint, his ribs tightly bound, and strange needles poked into his flesh at strange angles all over his body. A short legged ball of hair and teeth chattered at him in an unrecognisable language. Marcus had heard rumours of such creatures, tiny cannibal hunters that lived in distant mountains. He checked to make sure his fingers and toes were all in tact which caused the creature to cackle with amusement. In broken common tongue between fits of laughter it spoke: "No to be worry broken man. No even rats want eat you. You bone and old leather!" While Marcus regained his strength, his body seemingly absorbing the strange needles completely as his bones repaired, his friendship with the halfling savage, who called himself Bellyache, grew. Marcus learnt his strange tongue and in turn helped him with common. Bellyache showed him how to use a throwing axe to hunt all sorts of scurrying creatures that inhabited their less than sanitary abode. Marcus, or Leather as Bellyache calls him, learnt many secret ways beneath the city, learnt how to listen at the right places, and heard many interesting things. When completely healed, and strength returned Marcus returned to the surface, a fact which displeased his friend Bellyache very much. Marcus had decided to leave the Old Continent and find his fortune elsewhere. He was surprised to find that Bellyache had followed him. The two became inseparable. Bellyache followed Marcus wherever he went, making his home in the underbelly of the city, learning its twists and turns, listening to its secrets whispered in dark corridors, while Marcus used those secrets to find jobs and earn coin to keep them both fed and alive. One recent job lead him to unwittingly take a hire to protect two members of a secret society called the Veil. The caravan crossing was ambushed by sorcerers wearing dragon masks. Being a wise mercenary, he fled leaving those he was to protect to their fate. He went underground once more, fearing himself marked by both the Dragon Sorcerors and the Veil. However Bellyache has become increasingly intolerable. So much so Marcus has opted to return to the surface and take his chances. Even death would be preferable to Bellyache's constant belly aching at him! Completely destitute, Marcus Leather is looking for a job. Any job. And he's ready to take it, no questions asked ... although that didn't work out too well for him last time. Hooks: *Wanted for questioning: by the Veil *Wanted dead: by the Dragon Sorcerors *Strange attraction to anything primordial as his body changes and becomes increasingly harder due to whatever Bellyache did to him to keep him alive. *Desperate for work to give him break from his shadow, Bellyache Kicker: Math Ability Scores Attacks Defenses Saving Throw Bonuses Senses and Reactions Health Surges per Day 13 (Fighter 9 + Con 4) Speed and Movement Speed: 5 (Race 6 - Equipment -1) Scale Armor: -1 Movement Racial Features Human Bonus At Will Power: Heroic Effort Power Bonus Skill: Streetwise Bonus Feat: Deft Hurler Style Human Defense Bonuses: +1 racial bonus to Fortitude, Reflexes and Will Size: Medium Speed: 6 Vision: Normal Languages: Common, choice of one other: Goblin Class Features +2 Fortitude Combat Superiority: Leather gains a +1 bonus to OAtks; An enemy struck by his OAtk stops moving, is a move provoked the attack. If it still has actions remaining, it can use them to resume moving. Combat Challenge: Every time Leather attacks an enemy whether the attack hits or misses, he can choose to mark the target. The mark lasts until the end of Leather's next turn. He also gains the Combat Challenge power. Brawler Style: While Leather wields a weapon in his main hand and his off hand is free or grabbing a creature, he gains a +1 bonus to AC and a +2 bonus to Fortitude. In addition he gains a +2 enhancement bonus to unarmed attack rolls and a +2 bonus to grab attack rolls and attacks to move a creature he is grabbing. Weapon Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons. Armor Proficiencies: All armours up to Scale Armor. Feats Deft Hurler Style Bonus Feat - Leather gains the following benefit with his Cleave power: Leather can forgo dealing damage to the adjacent enemy and instead make a ranged basic attack with a heavy thrown weapon against one creature other than the target of his cleave. This ranged basic attack does not provoke OAtks. Brawler Guard level - Leather gains a +1 shield bonus to AC and Reflexes while he wields a weapon in one hand and his other hand is free or grabbing a creature. Weapon Proficiancy: War Axe level - Leather can use a war axe. Untamed Berserker Style level - Leather gains the following benefit with his Cleave power: Leather can forgo dealing damage to the adjacent enemy and instead gain 3 THPs Axe Expertise level free Expertise feat - Leather gains +1 feat bonus to attacks with axes and can reroll one damage dice that results in a 1. He must use the second roll. Mobile Challenge lvl: Can shift 1 on a hit with Combat Challenge Superior Fortitude level: +2 feat bonus to Fortitude and gain resist 3 vs Ongoing dmg Skills and Languages Languages Common, Primordial, Goblin Powers Powers Known At-Will - 1st Level Cleave Grappling Strike Human Bonus Power: Heroic Effort Encounter - 1st Level Serpent Steel Strike 3rd level Bull Charge 7th Level: Come and Get it Daily - 1st Level Comeback Strike Rain of Steel 2nd level -Utility (Daily) Boundless Endurance 6th Level: Ironwrought Toughness Theme - Utility Inevitable Strike Powers to Hit |Power03= |Power04= |Power05= |Power06= |Power07= }} Equipment Treasure Level 1 & 2 *1724 received here: Invasion of the Einherjar Level 3 *DM Reward: Good Reputation received here: The Seeds of Chaos *Total Gold Received: 1724 gp Level 4 & 5 *3628 gp taken here: The Seeds of Chaos - Abandoned by DM Level 5 & 6 *3262 Time gp Received: The Jade Ring Shopping: Buy Rebounding Hand Axe +1 (lvl 2) -520 gp Buy Dwarven Scale Armour +1 (lvl 2) -520 gp Buy Surrounding Battle Axe +1 (lvl 3) -680 gp Buy Cloak of the Walking Wounded +1 (lvl 4) -840 gp Buy Challenge Seeking Longsword +1(lvl 1) -360 gp Buy Bloodclaw Helbard +1 (lvl 2) -520 gp Discarded: Original Battle Axe -15 gp Consumed: *Total Gold left: 316 gp XP Level 1 & 2 *Total XP earned here: 2320 XP Invasion of the Einherjar Level 3 & 4 * Total XP earned here: 3037 xp Seeds of Chaos - Abandoned by DM * 1 DM Credit used for 292 XP * 4238 earned here: The Jade Ring * DM Credits used to reach level 8 Changes Lvl 2: *Gain +1 1/2 level bonus to skills, initiative, attack, and defences *Gain feat:Quick Draw *Gain Utility Power:Boundless Endurance *Gain 6 HP Lvl 3: *Gain Encounter Power:Bull Charge *Gain 6 HP Lvl 4: * Gain +1 1/2 level bonus to skills, initiative, attack, and defences *Gain feat:Untamed Berserker Style *Gain +1 STR & CON *Gain 6 HP Lvl 5: *Gain Expertise feat:Master at Arms *Gain Daily Power:Rain of Steel *Gain 6 HP *Gain Ironwrought Theme Benefit Lvl 6: *Retrain Quick Draw Feat for War Axe Proficiency *Gain Feat:Mobile Challenge *Gain Utility Power: Ironbound Toughness *Gain 6 HPs Lvl 7: *Retrain Human Extra At Will power for Human Heroic Effort Power *Gain Encounter Power: Come and Get it *Gain 6 HPs Lvl 8: *Gain Feat: Superior Fortitude *Gain +1 Str +1 Con *Gain 6 HPs Category:L4W:Requesting Approval Judge Comments Level 1 Approval 1 Everything's ship-shape. Approved --WEContact (talk) 17:26, September 2, 2012 (UTC) Approval 2 Everything looks great. Nothing to get a...Bellyache...over? ;) Approved -- CrimsonFlameWielder 12:13, September 2, 2012 (PST) Status Approved for level 1 by WEContact and CrimsonFlameWielder Level 3 Senior Approval Approval 2 Everything looks really good! At 4th level (which you'll get before the end of our next adventure), I would highly recommend picking up Manticore's Fury, since you seem to be fond of using Cleave to toss your hand axe after swiping at a foe with your battle axe. Having fun with you in my adventures, keep up the good work! Approved -- CrimsonFlameWielder Status Category:L4W:Requesting Approval